I am Dina

Dina is an unconventional and utterly modern female character, torn between her own death wish and her lust for life. Dina bears the mental scars of having, as a child, been the unwitting agent of her mother's ghastly death. Neglected and deprived of comfort and of love, as she grows up she develops her own ways of dealing with the world, at odds - to put it mildly - with her surroundings.

But she is lured out of her isolation - and into the marriage bed - by music and by sex. Boldly, recklessly, she indulges in all the pleasures life has to offer, scandalising everyone around her. In her darkest moments Dina draws comfort from her mother's ghost and in a powerful fascination with death. By challenging death she renders herself invulnerable, but in doing so she also cuts herself off from the possibility of a truly fulfilling life.

Things start to go badly wrong when Jacob her husband seeks peace and comfort elsewhere, but Dina is given another chance to choose life and love when Leo the Russian appears on the scene. But does she dare to lay herself bare to him, exposing herself to the vulnerability that is so necessary if one is to give and receive love?